WHY NOW?
The nature and drivers of economic growth are changing, requiring a new economic development practice. These shifts are disrupting labor and business markets, industries, infrastructure, neighborhoods and governance. They also are generating enormous new value and wealth-creation opportunities as new industries emerge, new human capital demand arises, and new types of place-based development occur. As this new economy emerges, growth and wealth creation are proving to be uneven and unsustainable. NGIN is working to create new approaches to economic growth to seize these opportunities for all.
WHAT IS QUALITY GROWTH?
Quality growth focuses on creating long-term value; increasing the productivity and participation of all assets; and enabling more people – especially those who historically have been left out – to own and drive the enormous wealth creation emerging in today’s economy.
Although new practices are emerging – including inclusive cluster enterprises and new models for urban industrial land reuse – practitioners still face challenges. Their ability to identify changing market dynamics and opportunities as well as innovate, co-invent, and scale what works to drive growth inclusively is limited by geographic dispersion, subject-area silos, lack of technical support and investment gaps. NGIN provides the platform, networks, expertise and resources to enable leading practitioners to systematically invent, test and scale this new practice.
A MOMENT FOR INVENTION.
NGIN leverages strong partnerships in order to be a thought center for practitioners and other stakeholders. NGIN also provides resources and expertise to develop and test new practices as well as drive innovations in the field. NGIN supports exchange and ideation, research and development, testing and piloting, dissemination and scaling, market and field building, communities of practice, expert SWAT teams, and Innovation and Investment Committees.
Currently in its launch year, NGIN is meeting the needs of inclusive economic development practitioners and stakeholders through two core functions: Practice Innovation and Field Building.
Practice Innovation
NGIN members and partners are working to design, test, replicate and scale new inclusive growth practices by:
- Analyzing leading-edge opportunities for inclusive growth practice invention. For its founding practice innovation portfolio, NGIN’s members have targeted five core areas offering major new wealth-creation opportunities: inclusive industry clusters; market-making reuse of urban industrial land use; minority ownership of high-growth companies; inclusive labor market systems; and neighborhoods of opportunity and choice.
- Developing clear, testable demonstration projects. Teams of leading practitioner organizations in over 15 regions around the country – working with more than a dozen leading national experts and organizations – are developing new initiatives and enterprises to drive growth inclusively in each of the five core areas.
- Commercializing and scaling promising practices by raising and investing resources (grants and investment funds) and convening practitioners around the country to bring practices to market.
Field Building
NGIN is advancing the field of inclusive growth practice by:
- Creating a membership network of national practitioners, subject matter experts and partners who recognize the value of high-quality inclusive growth and are committed to co-invention – including through focused Communities of Practice in each of the five initial practice innovation areas.
- Organizing strategic convenings to advance practice and engage with broader inclusive-growth networks to bring leading-edge practices to the forefront.
- Disseminating information about the state of the field, relevant policies and strategies, and key lessons learned from practice.